


boys and their toys

by biichan



Category: Heroes - Fandom
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-31
Updated: 2006-10-31
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biichan/pseuds/biichan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You don't run away to America without at least packing. Takes place during episode three.</p>
            </blockquote>





	boys and their toys

Hiro was such an _otaku_. It was embarrassing sometimes.

This, of course, begged the question why Ando spent so much time with Hiro, especially when he couldn't really take him anywhere. He'd have to suppose it was inertia. They'd been together for years. Same high school, same _juku_—they'd spent a year being _ronin_ together, living on caffeine and instant ramen in a cramped six-_tatami_ flat until they'd passed the entrance exam for the same university. And now they were salarymen at the same company. In his more morbid moods, Ando wondered if they would be buried together.

Hiro had his own apartment now, crowded with toys and models and video games. There were DVDs and laserdiscs and manga everywhere. Every square inch of the wall was covered with some sort of poster. Ando sat on a cardboard box full of superhero comics and watched Hiro pack his duffle bag. He shook his head. "If we aren't back within a month, the manager's going to throw out your stuff."

Hiro shrugged. "Being a hero involves sacrifice." He stuffed another pair of pants in the bag, then a tee shirt with a Superman logo on it.

"You spent a lot of yen on it," said Ando, picking up a Lum-chan statue and turning it around in his hands. He remembered when Hiro had got the unpainted garage kit, the way he'd carried it home from Comiket as if it were something precious and fragile—and he remembered skipping _juku_ with Hiro in order to get Takahashi Rumiko's autograph. "I don't want to think how much."

Hiro threw a thick book in the bag—something about a thousand-faced hero. "It's just stuff. You can't let your stuff control you." He took Lum-chan from Ando and set it down on the _kotatsu_. "I'm taking everything I need with me."

Ando frowned. He knew how much Hiro loved his toys. It was annoying how much Hiro loved his toys. "Isn't there anything you're going to miss?"

"No," said Hiro, with that secret little smile of his. "I'm taking you with me."

**Author's Note:**

> **Notes on Japanese terms/culture:**  
> _otaku_ = no-life fanboy geek. In America, this has been adopted as a term of pride.  
> _juku_= cram school. Where Japanese teenagers study for long hours after school to prepare themselves for the college entrance exams.  
> _ronin_ = in this case, students who've failed to get into college on their first try and have to retake the entrance exams again next year. The term traditionally means masterless samurai.  
> _tatami_ = floor mats. The size of Japanese apartments is measured by the number of _tatami_ covering the floor.  
> Lum-chan = main character of Rumiko Takahashi's seminal manga, _Urusei Yatsura_. Basically a cute, hot-tempered, flying alien babe with horns and a tiger-striped bikini. UY was one of the big manga of the eighties. Hiro and Ando would have so read it as kids. Takahashi later went on to do _Ranma 1/2_ and _Inu-Yasha_.  
> Garage kits = little DIY plastic/resin/whatever statues, made for fans by fans. You buy the little statue and pain it yourself, although people also sell finished ones A large number of garage kits are of hot anime babes.  
> Comiket = the biggest con in Japan. Held twice a year, for three days each in winter and summer.  
> _kotatsu_ = a sort of low skirted table with a heater built into it. Almost every Japanese home has these because a lot of buildings don't have central heating.


End file.
